ToyKeeper, I would like to donate a small gift to show my appreciation. Where do I send it? Thanks.

I haven’t set up anything yet. I’ve been a bit busy testing the light today…

… which brings up a thing people should be aware of for these samples. They seem to have shipped with 10508 or 10509 optics, which are both significantly more floody than the 10511 optic it is intended to have. I heard back from Neal today about this, and Lumintop hasn’t received its order of 10511 optics yet so they used some others they had in stock.

Klayking wrote:

1) If we were to compare the FW3A to a similarly sized flashlight known for efficiency, such as the Zebralight SC64, would the FW3A be roughly as efficient?

2) In ToyKeeper’s Emisar D4 review, she listed all of the ramping steps. These seem to be the same on the Emisar D4S and I was able to use them to configure my D4S’ stepped levels very specifically. Will these steps also be the same on the FW3A, as it is running Anduril? I’d like to be able to set my ramp ceiling right at the highest regulated mode for efficiency, and it is nice to know where that is exactly.

1. No. Zebralights use buck/boost drivers, which are more efficient than linear drivers. The FW3A uses a linear driver.

2. The ramp is not the same as the D4. The full details are in the cfg-fw3a.h file, but here’s a summary:

1 to 65: 1×7135

66 to 130: 8×7135

131 to 149: 8×7135 + FET

150: FET only

Would it make sense to add some 7*7135 stepps?

In theory I suppose you could have a step with the first channel off, the second channel 100%, and the FET off, but im sure that would be a significant amount more programming to add into the firmware to make that work on both the ramp and the steps.

I’m curious, if they may use 2 different optics for the LH351D version and the XPL-Hi version?

Eg. the Mateminco X6S with triple Nichia 219C uses a frosty (floody) optic by default, but the X6S with triple XPL-Hi uses a throwy (clear) optic by default.

So the XPL-Hi has increased throw, while the 219C becomes even more floody with the chosen optic.

Will this be the case for the FW3A (use a floody optic for LH351D, to make it a floody light), and use a clear optic for the XPL-Hi (for throwy beam)?

No, they will all use the same optic.

We are using the xpl-hi simply because the domed version does not fit under the optic. The dome is too big. It has nothing to do with being floody or throwy. The frosted 10511 is the best comprise between throw and good looks.

The XP-L HI was chosen because it makes a particularly nice beam, but the extra throw was a nice bonus too. Domed Cree emitters like XP-L HD and XP-G3 don’t make such good-looking beams. XP-G3 could have been an okay option with a frosted wide or frosted medium optic, because the optic blends out the Cree rainbow effect, but it looks pretty bad in a throwy or clear optic. And XP-L HD physically doesn’t quite fit, so it wasn’t even an option.

LH351D was chosen because it also makes a particularly nice beam, but it’s really floody. It could work reasonably well with a different optic, like 10507 to make it less floody, but I expect that will likely just invite production inconsistencies. Communication on these things is … unreliable. So it’s generally a good idea to keep things simple whenever possible.

There’s a good chance of trying to add SST-20 at some point too, since it has become popular in the time since the emitter poll was finished.

Not really. Even if it worked perfectly, the benefit would be very small. And it’s unlikely it would work perfectly. It could easily create a zig-zag in the ramp instead of going up smoothly.

Using a 1+1+2+4 chip design can work better, and it allows hitting any regulated level while only doing PWM on the first channel. However, this also has relatively minimal gains over a 7+1 design, and it requires more pins, and it tends to make the ramp a little more bumpy because there are more channel transitions.

In any case, it won’t get anywhere near the efficiency of a ZebraLight, because ZL converts extra voltage to usable power and 7135 chips do not.

SST-20 leds look really good in the Carclo 10507, some fraying at the edge of the hotspot closeby that virtually disappears at over 2 meter. Only if you are looking for it you see that the very edge of the hotspot is a bit cooler than the rest of the hotspot. I think it suits the FW3A better than the very floody LH351D, the 4000K and 3000K versions have better tint and CRI and a bit more spot brightness, but with a little less output.

Because for some reason the various SST-20 leds are well available in China, I’m sure that Lumintop will make an SST-20 version at some point.

SST-20 leds look really good in the Carclo 10507, some fraying at the edge of the hotspot closeby that virtually disappears at over 2 meter. Only if you are looking for it you see that the very edge of the hotspot is a bit cooler than the rest of the hotspot. I think it suits the FW3A better than the very floody LH351D, the 4000K and 3000K versions have better tint and CRI and a bit more spot brightness, but with a little less output.

Because for some reason the various SST-20 leds are well available in China, I’m sure that Lumintop will make an SST-20 version at some point.

When I put some in a E2L with 10507 the starburst shaped hotspot is very noticable to me. I personally am not too bothered by it but I dont think I would say virtually disappears.

looks great, i guess the lightning makes it look brighter then it actually is ?

Nope, I already asked about the color some pages back, it’s not like it’s graphite gray or something (sadly ;D) – see TK’s reply:

ToyKeeper wrote:

Streamtronics wrote:

In the OP it says “current status: anodization is dark gray”… now, I can’t speak for others of course, but to me dark gray would be something like graphite (or maybe a bit lighter than that) – in the pics it looks like it’s closer to silver, kinda like a middle gray actually lol.

We asked for dark grey, though what I received is more of what I’d call a medium grey. I think it still looks good though, even though it’s a bit lighter than expected.